1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data communication apparatus and, more particularly, to a data communication apparatus having a data memory for storing received data.
2. Related Background Art
In an environment such as an office, unlike a telephone set, a facsimile apparatus, for example, is rarely installed for each user but often installed in a place remote from a desk or the like of a user as a data transmitting/receiving operator.
Therefore, in order to perform facsimile transmission/reception, a user must move to the apparatus to place an original or perform other necessary operations.
In consideration of the above situation, a conventional apparatus which informs, e.g., an image transmission/reception result (presence/absence of communication) to a predetermined telephone set by a voice has been proposed.
In such a conventional apparatus, however, since only the communication result is informed, a user must move to the apparatus and collect an original or a received image.
In addition, in a conventional apparatus of this type, a communication result is informed only once. Therefore, if a user misses reception of this information, he or she cannot know a communication state.
Furthermore, in the conventional apparatus, a message for informing data reception is the same regardless of the number of times of reception. Therefore, if a plurality of image data are memory-received, a plurality of communications cannot be identified.
In the apparatus for performing memory reception as described above, if information indicating data reception is given to a user and no response is obtained from the user, received image information remains in a memory to cause an overflow of the memory, thereby disabling further memory reception.
In the case of automatically sending a message informing data reception as described above, if a message transmission destination outputs a message by automatic response, a message sent from a transmission source collides with a message sent from the transmission destination. As a result, the message cannot be correctly sent to the destination. Prior applications associated with such memory reception are U.S. patent application Ser. No. 942,208 (Dec. 16, 1986), U.S. Pat. No. 4,785,355, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 114,519 (Oct. 30, 1987), U.S. patent application Ser. No. 120,104 (Nov. 13, 1987), U.S. Pat. No. 4,814,890, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 147,224 (Jan. 22, 1988), U.S. patent application Ser. No. 244,305 (Sep. 15, 1988), and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 282,684 (Dec. 12, 1988).
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above situation and intends as its object to improve a data communication apparatus.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a data communication apparatus capable of performing remote control from a remote location.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a data communication apparatus capable of sending a message indicating data reception to a remote location when data is memory-received, and transmitting the memory-received data by remote control from the remote location.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a data communication apparatus capable of, when a plurality of data are memory-received, transmitting information for identifying data in a memory to a remote location, and selecting and remote-transmitting arbitrary data from the memory by remote control from the remote location.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a data communication apparatus capable of correctly processing memory-received data and preventing an overflow of a memory.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a data communication apparatus capable of correctly sending a message to a remote location.
The other objects will become apparent from the detailed description of embodiments of the present invention and the accompanying drawings.